Dossier

Dossier
This is the package that carried our hearts through Paris, Dubai, and on to Ethiopia :)

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Gifts for Silas


His first gifts! The blanket will go great with his dino pj's! His future buddy Jackson bought him the suit in the top pic to wear while they play in the nursery together :)

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Images from the orphanage/vbs
















A Name for Our Son

Wow. So much to blog about since last time I was able to write! Where do I start? First of all, I wanted to make the announcement of what we are naming our sweet baby boy. We searched "African baby boy names" and came up with a few that we really liked, including Selah and Jamison. We wrote them down, but weren't able to settle on one immediately. One morning a few weeks ago I was doing my devotions and was reading in Acts about Paul and his journeys. I read through a certain chapter and froze...I had found our sons name. I knew I had to consult with Shane about it, but in my heart I knew that this is what we would be calling him. So, without further ado, our sons name is Silas. In the New Testament, Silas was a member of the early church, and accompanied Paul on his second missionary journey. Tonight I looked up the meaning of the name Silas and almost cried. It is derived from the Aramaic word shila, which means asked for.
As most of you know, Shane and I were on a missions trip to Jamaica last week with 8 of our teens. We had the amazing privilege of helping out at the Robin's Nest Children's Home, an orphanage in the mountains of Jamaica. It was so special for Shane and I. Shortly after we arrived, I looked over at Shane and noticed that he was crying. "Our son is going to be coming from a place like this, Summer." We spent the whole day loving on the kids, and dreaming of the day that we get to go pick up Silas in Ethiopia. At one point in the day, I was folding kids clothes and heard Shane in the next room doing the "this little piggy" nursery rhyme with a child. I started to giggle because he was messing it all up. "This little piggy went to the market, this little piggy went to the store, this little piggy played football, and this little piggy was made into bacon. This other little piggy was made into ham." HAHAHAHA! That's my Shaney - not trying to be funny, but yet so innocently being funny. He couldn't remember the words, so he just made it all up. And how gruesome that the piggy was made into food! The little boy obviously did not know the difference, because when I peeked around the corner, he was sitting in Shane's lap with the biggest smile on his face. It melted my heart. It won't matter if we don't know the right words to all the popular nursery rhymes or have the best toys - what will matter is precious time spent with our son and seeing his beautiful smile.
We have started to tackle the paperwork this week! We feel we are making some progress. Each time we sit down to work on things, we remind each other that this is the necessary evil in order to get to the joyous part! The faster we get our homestudy and dossier done, the sooner we meet Silas. Please continue to keep us in your prayers!